// GenericsNote: Converted.
/*
 *  Copyright 2003-2004 The Apache Software Foundation
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 *  limitations under the License.
 */
package org.jivesoftware.smack.util.collections;

import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Defines a map that can be iterated directly without needing to create an
 * entry set.
 * <p/>
 * A map iterator is an efficient way of iterating over maps. There is no need
 * to access the entry set or cast to Map Entry objects.
 * 
 * <pre>
 * IterableMap map = new HashedMap();
 * MapIterator it = map.mapIterator();
 * while (it.hasNext()) {
 * 	Object key = it.next();
 * 	Object value = it.getValue();
 * 	it.setValue(&quot;newValue&quot;);
 * }
 * </pre>
 * 
 * @author Matt Hall, John Watkinson, Stephen Colebourne
 * @version $Revision: 1.1 $ $Date: 2005/10/11 17:05:19 $
 * @since Commons Collections 3.0
 */
public interface IterableMap<K, V> extends Map<K, V> {

	/**
	 * Obtains a <code>MapIterator</code> over the map.
	 * <p/>
	 * A map iterator is an efficient way of iterating over maps. There is no
	 * need to access the entry set or cast to Map Entry objects.
	 * 
	 * <pre>
	 * IterableMap map = new HashedMap();
	 * MapIterator it = map.mapIterator();
	 * while (it.hasNext()) {
	 * 	Object key = it.next();
	 * 	Object value = it.getValue();
	 * 	it.setValue(&quot;newValue&quot;);
	 * }
	 * </pre>
	 * 
	 * @return a map iterator
	 */
	MapIterator<K, V> mapIterator();

}
